Given Ankara's long-running support for armed groups in Syria, it's not unnatural that a funeral ceremony for a commander of one of those groups be held in Turkey. Abdel Baset al-Sarout, 27, a commander in Jaysh al-Izza who became a media icon, was taken to a hospital in Reyhanli in Hatay province on June 8. Sarout soon succumbed to his injuries, and a crowded funeral ceremony took place at Tevhid Mosque in Reyhanli the following day, before his body was sent to Syria for burial.​

Turkish hospitals in border provinces like Hatay, Kilis and Gaziantep have treated many rebels wounded on Syrian battlefields, including members of the Islamic State (IS). The benevolence of the Turkish state had only stirred limited criticism thus far, as many see the government’s actions as standing by the oppressed.

Yet holding a ceremony for a man who once called for the extermination of Alawites touched a sore spot for many in Hatay, a region where various ethnic and religious groups coexist peacefully, including ethnic Arabs of the Alawite faith.

At a 2012 opposition rally, Sarout chanted, “We are all jihadis. Homs has made its decision. We will exterminate the Alawites. And the Shiites have to go.” Sarout was controversial for his links to IS and Jabhat al-Nusra. Albeit the media praised him as a "hero" and "the singer of the revolution" for his anti-regime songs and as "the guard of the revolution" in reference to his past role as a goalkeeper in Homs.